It took us awhile to meander over to Finland.
All I can say is, we should have found Finland sooner!
Finland is scenically stunning.
There is wonderful Hanseatic, Classical and Orthodox architecture.
There were a lot of street artists and musicians in Helsinki. This musician made beautiful music with his wine bottles!
Like most of Europe, there are beautiful cathedrals.
If you have the chance, I definitely recommend you find Finland too!
Cheers to you from The Holler~
Oh my heavens, Finland is just stunning. I want to visit this beautiful place one day, that is if I can manage to win the lottery.. lol.. But, really these pictures of your travels are outstanding…Thank you for posting such beauty.. hugs and take care .. Happy blogging my dear….
What an incredibly kind and thoughtful comment! Thank you so much and I do hope you win the lottery and got to Finland too!!! <3
Oh yay Cindy! My family is from Finland! My Great Grandpa is from Vora. The Topper Antus farm. Wow this is amazing to see! WOW! I love this! 😀 MM
Double yay!!! So happy you like! Finland is so lovely as are the Finnish people! You have reason to be proud~
I am very much! I love love love your adventures! The are amazing! 🙂
You make them even better! <3
Wow. Another place to add to my list. Beautiful photos.
Such a big wonderful world!! I hope you do go!
It is a beautiful country!
Yes indeed, beauty everywhere you look!
Cindy this looks lovely – great photos and it seems so clean!
Yes it is and this is exactly what my daughter said when I took her to Norway. Squeaky clean and friendly too~
oh wow the orthodox architecture certainly is something, beautiful design 🙂
I have simply fallen in love with it! It is so gorgeous inside and out! Thanks much~
You are so welcome 🙂
I can only echo all of the comments above, they’ve taken the words right out of my mouth!
Awwwww, so kind and so appreciated! <3
Finland too! Such an exciting trip, this one, Cindy 🙂 Where next? Never mind- I’ll soon see.
I love having you along! You are the best traveler! 😉
Wow the Cathedral is fantastic! I wished we had architecture like that here too! Gorgeous! Hugz Lisa and Bear
I do too, but it makes traveling so worthwhile!
Love love love this!
Soooo glad you do!!! <3
I don’t get as much time as I would like on here. 😀
Really appreciate the details and colors of these photos! We visited Helsinki some 15 years ago. Looks like you are traveling good part of the Europe. 🙂 Enjoy the virtual tour so much, Cindy! 🙂
Lucky you to have found Finland long before we did! So happy to have you along Amy & cheers~
Your pictures make me want to go to Finland. We especially are taken with this bottle musician! What an interesting way to make music!
Plus he played really beautiful, recognizable pieces and it sounded wonderful! I was very impressed~
Majestic landscapes. Wonderful gallery as always dear Cindy. Thanks for sharing, best wishes, Aquileana 😛
Loving your posts too my friend! <3
Stunning photographs. Think I’d like to go there.
You will be very glad when you do!!
Beautiful thank you for sharing with us!
Thank you more for appreciating!
Finland looks to be just beautiful. I particularly like the water and beaches, they look so pristine. Thanks for sharing these.
There were people swimming off the rocks. I think I should have included a pic of that~
Ooh, I was hoping you’d get to Finland! If I could go anywhere, I think Finland or Norway would be my choice. (Though after seeing your photos of Switzerland, that’s high on my list as well!) Just beautiful, Cindy.
Well, here’s a possibility go to Switzerland, Norway and Finland!!! They are all amazingly beautiful!
The cathedrals are beautiful Cindy.
Thank you my friend and I am glad you like them~
A friend of mine just moved to Finland. He and his family are finding it a fascinating and friendly place. Check out http://laceduplutheran.wordpress.com
Ooooooh, what an exciting adventure! I wonder what it will be like in winter?
Finding Finland is certainly a good idea judging from your photographic and human impressions! Lovely. 🙂
Time for a trip maybe Dor????
Sincere apologies, I went to click on this post on my reader and accidentally unfollowed you. I added you straight back.
Anyway, I wanted to come and take a closer look because we visited Finland back in 2006. We went at Christmas to take my son to do the whole Lapland adventure and had a wonderful time. We didn’t get to see much of Finland though as it was covered in snow and at it’s coldest about -36. We really only got to see the areas that the tour had organised for the kids.
My favourite experience of the trip was the evening Husky Mushing across a frozen lake, absolutely breathtaking and a memory I’ll treasure forever.
Thank you for sharing this post, Finland is somewhere I’d like to return to for sure.
Oh that husky ride must have been incredible and I can well imagine a treasured memory. Maybe your return trip can be in the warmer summer months. People were swimming in the ocean!!!
I would definitely like to go back in the summer. We were talking of going back to Norway some time in the future, maybe we’ll combine the two.
Another wonderful travelogue–and more visual memories for you.
Awwww, thank you Sally. It is good I blog, because without my blog, I wouldn’t remember which photos go with which place!!!
Beautiful pictures! Looks like a wonderful place!
So glad you enjoyed!
Breath taking and I love the rocky shore line which i am sure has got to be really slippery when the tide is in, and even when the tide is out from algae.
Yes and people were swimming off it. I should have included a photo of them swimming and the ladder off the rocks into the water!
Wow, if I were you, I’d never want to leave Europe. 🙂 I went for a month once, and loved it. But I have to admit that I was happy to head home finally.
I now am more accustomed to travel than being home!! I never want it to end!
What fun! What a great attitude you have. 🙂 Let the party go on and on!
Beautiful landscape of the place. I like rocks along the coast lines. It would be cool to sit there and watch out. Mark down another dream place to visit 🙂
Ooooh, I hope you do go and post your pics on your blog!
I adore your posts! 🙂
I feel the same about yours! Cheers to you and thanks too~
Dear Cindy! Finland is very beautiful. I drove with my family from Helsinki across the country all the way to the Nordcup and then down the whole coast to Oslo many many years ago and fell in love with Scandinavia. One reason I feel so good in the Pacific Northwest. The people are so friendly there. Thank you for sharing! Hugs! Veraiconica
Yes! I have been to Nordcap and Oslo and all over Norway. I had never been to Finland And of course I love the Pacific Northwest which reminds me of Switzerland. And yes, the people, like you are definitely the best part! Hugz to you my friend~
Colors and photos are beautiful and excellent, just as always! I didn’t know they had such type of churches there! I’m usually flying over Finland, I mean, stopping there for a while. I had impression their lakes were something picturesque, but you found amazing spots in cities, too!
Finland like Norway if gobbstockingly gorgeous! All these Hanseatic cities are. I am very glad you have been there~
The choice of photos and the few well chosen words in your posts.
Give more inspiration to travel than a tourist broacher.
Chillon Castle where the school children were imprisoned by their teacher.
I am sure they would have liked the sand sculpture better or the bottled music.
I like the picturesque places and the architecture you show, as well as those outstanding sand sculptures. Thanks Cindy.
“Chillon Castle where the school children were imprisoned by their teacher. I am sure they would have liked the sand sculpture better or the bottled music.”
Have I ever mentioned that you rock Jack?
Excellent presentation, Cindy! The country seems to be very colorful! Glad that you got sunny days! 🙂
Thank you and yes, it was sunny and warm in Sweden, Finland and Norway! The last time we were in this area it was sunny too. So there is sunshine in Scandinavia~
Gorgeous photos Cindy. I am really happy that You visited my country. Helsinki is beautiful and so much to see. Hopefully You’ll visit it again and travel to the north, because You just scratched the surface.
Thank You for this post.
Yes, we want to go back to your ethereal country. We have pretty much covered all of Norway and Finland clearly warrants another, more lengthy visit. Thank you more for the appreciation!
Wow, when I think of Scandinavian countries, I generally imagine that it’d be cold out there. However, these pictures make Finland look so warm and inviting!
I have never encountered anything but sunshine in Scandinavia, but we always travel before fall and maybe have just been lucky. They were swimming in Finland and in Denmark in the ocean!
Wow, swimming in the ocean up there… amazing! I hope to visit that area sometime as my boyfriend is Scandinavian in origin, so I’m interested in where he came from. Thanks for providing this glimpse into their culture!
Wonderful post Cindy! I hope you have a great week ahead.
Thank you my friend and the same to you!
Alright now I’m speechless ❗ . Great shots. I hadn’t realized that continental Europe was so colourful. I think they nicked our paintbox. 🙂
Yours and ours! I envy their creative use of color. It makes the countryside so scenic. Switzerland seems to do this with flowers, like the UK? Scandinavia uses red, orange, green and yellow. The US throws caution to the wind and uses different shades of beige!!!! 😉
LOL I didn’t know there were different shades of beige. 🙂
I find it interesting that so many of the Scandinavian countries have these vibrant paint colors in their architecture. It’s like a way of coping with the long months of gray maybe?
Yes, I think so. Plus they have to be looking at the shoreline from the water on their boats. When viewed from the water, these colors are so perfectly scenic. I imagine they stand out against the winter white too!
Beautiful colours, Cindy. I would love to hear that wine bottle musician. 🙂
He was incredible and played classical music flawlessly! There are a lot of talented people in this world!
I love it when others post like this… and specially when the photos are so magnificent… makes me feel as though I’ve been there myself (something that will never happen) so I visit all these other places with people like you…. thank you…
Awwwww, thank you more! I am in awe of your photos and your country as you well know. South Africa is now our next booked trip!
Very beautiful photos. It does look like a wonderful vacation spot!
Grazi. I love the houses that stand on little islands all by themselves. I wonder what it would be like to live like this? Every commute would require calm seas and they would be even more remote than The Holler!
Such blue sky and water – we rarely hear of Finland. Thanks for sharing it!
The water was so crystal clear and unpolluted and the seafood just caught and perfectly fresh!! Delightful! Thank you for your thoughtfulness~
I love the blue water and musical wine bottles!
Too bad I didn’t record his sound! It was perfection!
Looks beautiful! A wonderful place to visit and a whole world of sights to see 🙂
Wolfie would be right at home! 😉
Hello my friend….I am very happy with your trip to Europe … Because I have traveled with you … Gorgeous photos … I wish I had your talent and registered my stay here in the USA as you did …. Now there’s no more time … I’m going back to Brazil …. but delighted with this country … A kiss
You made the trip so much more fun! I am an admirer of your blog too my friend. Have a safe trip back to beautiful Brazil! <3
Gorgeous Foundland.. er I mean, Funland…oops, Finland. Finland is so much more beautiful than I could have imagined. Thanks, Cindy!
cindy, exceptional de frumos blogul tau, si plimbandu-ma prin el, nutresc speranta bucuriei de a te intalni, si a te/ne imbratisa.
Onu
Esti foarte amabil și cel mai apreciat! Vă mulțumim prietenul meu! <3
Cu pretuire deplina, 🙂
Onu
WOW-wow-wow, Cindy. Crazy comment for photos, but I’m struck by how clean it looks. Thanks for taking us with you on your trip. xx, mgh ADDandSoMuchMore dot com
Not crazy at all. This is exactly what my daughter said on our first trip to Norway. It is clean, unspoiled with completely clean water! Heavenly~
If I decide to expatriate in my old age, this is now on my list of candidates – along with Sweden and Norway. Amazingly forward-thinking countries, IMHO. They seem to walk America’s talk. US? Not so much. xx, mgh
Love traveling with you, Cindy! <3
You are a joy to have along Bette! <3
The water is just a stunning blue.
So clean! We don’t see oceans that clean at home~
Photos that certainly back up your advice to visit Finland! Really like them all but especially the first one.
I love the beach changing rooms too! So scenic. Glad you like it too!
It would have been fun to hear the wine bottle music, Cindy. That’s a new one for me.
It was beautiful and perfectly on key!!!
Wow such stunning sights, Cindy! The rocky beach and the sea in the third photo look incredibly beautiful, an unusual ‘beachscape’ to me.
Yes, me too. There was a photo I wish I included of people in bathing suits around a metal ladder affixed to the rock for walking down into the sea and a person water skiing if you can imagine!!
That sounds fascinating indeed! Maybe for a Finland Part.2 edition in future 🙂
Yes!!!! But there is still Norway and Sweden to post about!!! 😉
Wunderschön wünsche eine gute neue Woche liebe Grüße und Freundschaft Gislinde
Guten tag Gislinde und vielen danke! 🙂
Reblogged this on Spirit In Action and commented:
Thank you Cindy! Such a colourful, lively looking place for being so very far north! My neighbor’s family is from there so I have heard a lot about it. Very interesting culture as well as beautiful scenery.
Hi my friend. I only have the perspective of seeing Scandinavia in the summer. I am sure winters would be entirely different!
My neighbor told a hilarious story involving the deep snow and the use of outhouses for bathroom facilities in his family’s home in the rural area in Finland. It sounds like it is quite beautiful in all seasons-just in a different way.
Oooooooo, yes I have heard such stories before…… ^^’
Beautiful!
🙂 🙂
What an incredible trip you have been on, Cindy. You make me want to explore all those places.
Well good, then I am sure you will and I would love to see your photos!!! <3
Beautiful! There is an art in capturing beauty and you are an artist!
Awwww, you are very kind! Thanks so much~
Nice shots Cindy, Finlandia, a place where East meets West, where Russia collides with Europa and vice versa. Orthodox churches are very beautiful. I like their colors, ambiance, aesthetics……. Cheers from Poland. Wanda
Yes, thank you for explaining this so eloquently. Orthodox churches are so beautiful to me. My grandfather was from Bulgaria and was raised in the with this tradition so I guess I am wired to like it! 🙂
Beauty of almost unbelievable proportions throughout your amazing trip, Cindy! You have such a keen eye for the worthwhile, and thankfully, the camera skills to share it wonderfully with us. I’m in awe of all of these latest posts, and now hungry to get to all of the locales as quickly as humanly possible! Also hungry for the rösti mit käse, of course, but you know me. 😉 Thank you for taking us along on your adventures. Until the rest of us can afford the time and/or other expenses of following in your footsteps, it’s a tremendous delight to see all of this through your eyes!
xoxo,
Kathryn
Ohhhhh, what a lovely and thoughtful comment. It is people like you who make blogging such a joy! It is wonderful that you want to go an experience some of these beautiful parts of our world and I hope you do go soon! Hugz to you and thank you too~
Beautiful photos, Cindy! 🙂
Merci beaucoup mon ami~
I would love to dive into this sky blue water. Did you take Tallink Silja Line Ferry to Helsinki?
I saw this ferry, but no we didn’t take it. I imagine the water could be a tad nippy! 😉
We enjoyed Helsinki … Vibrant and those two churches sitting high are so contrasting.
They are which makes the city much more interesting!
My list of places keeps growing. Thanks Cindy! What a wonderful trip!
It has been much better with you along my friend! <3
Looks so beautiful and blue and interesting about the orthodox churches.
They are extraordinary!
Wow, Cindy, you photos bring me back to my trip in 2010. I don’t like being a jealous person but your Euro-jaunt has got me a bit envious! Which island is that in the first picture? The one with the brightly colored bungalows on the beach?
It was off the coast of Helsinki. There were so many islands, I’m sorry but I have no idea of the name. They were all amazingly pretty though~
Glad you enjoyed Helsinki! Did you get a chance to visit its design district?
Do you mean Kallio? Yes I did visit Kallio. There was a wonderful vibe there, fun to browse.
As always Cindy …very beautiful and lively picture ..My favourite is the first one and one with the man ….so colorful …Makes me feel as if I am there
So glad and wish the man knew how many people were interested in his music!
So nice you found my birth country!! Beautiful pictures too!
You are from Finland! Lucky you!!! Lots of bloggers from Finland here. Who knew???? 🙂
absolutely amazing!
Well thank you and welcome too!!!
Wow, it does look stunning!
So glad you enjoyed and cheers to you~
Piękne zdjęcia z Finlandii. Pozdrawiam
Dziękuję bardzo !
Always stunning photos. I’ll have to see what ‘The Keys’ have to offer as we are taking a delayed anniversary vacation there in a few months. In the mean time Grandchildren keep me busy!
Thanks for your visits. 🙂
Have a wonderful time in the marvelous, laid back Keys! Love them. Hug your grandkids for me~
Oh my, the blue of the sky! Just gorgeous!
That is the sort of day one loves to wake up too!
I very much want to find Finland. 🙂
I am perfectly certain you would love it my friend!
For years and years my family had a beautiful cat with the Finnish name ‘Sisu’. When my father worked in the gold mines in Fiji in 1949, some of his co-workers were from Finland. I wish I knew more about how they got to Fiji.
Well know I do too! If you remember their names you could start by googling them……Enquiring minds want to know!
I enjoy street artists. I think that many of them are under-appreciated.
Talent and courage, what’s not to love? 😉
Great photos, Cindy! I have never been to Finland but it looks wonderful 🙂
I hadn’t been either but it was a wonderful surprise! Welcome and cheers to you~
The architecture is phenomenal! 🙂
I agree and so glad you think so too! Cheers to you~
Liebe Cindy wünsche dir ein super sonniges Wochenende zur Zeit haben wir noch viel Nebel aber das ist immer ein gutes Zeichen viele liebe Grüße in Freundschaft Klaus
Guten tag Klaus! Vielen, vielen dank! Freundschaft!
I love your last picture. nice.
Happy you do! Thanks much~
I loved finland as well. It’s so easy to get lost in the beauty of Helsinki
Yes indeed. Beautiful country. Beautiful people~
I love Finland, too. Great post 🙂
So happy you love Finland too. It is just gorgeous. Cheers & thanks~